


and if you close your eyes

by Babydoll Ria (Babydoll_Ria)



Series: Panem Elite [2]
Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/F, F/M, Gossip Girl - Freeform, Growing Up, elite, upper east siders
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-07-26
Updated: 2014-07-26
Packaged: 2018-02-10 10:56:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,706
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2022564
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Babydoll_Ria/pseuds/Babydoll%20Ria
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Because that’s how the story goes, boy meets girl in a shitty rat infested apartment, boy brings girl fast food to keep them from starving because mother was unable to get out of bed, and somewhere in high school they kiss, fuck and boy gets into university and girl gets kidnapped and brought to New York City where she is stuck getting brunch.</p><p>{Or Katniss Everdeen grows up, falls in and out of love, and tries to figure if the bakery boy is trying to get into her pants or not}</p>
            </blockquote>





	and if you close your eyes

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sarsaparillia](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sarsaparillia/gifts), [the_milliners_rook](https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_milliners_rook/gifts), [youarethesenntinels](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=youarethesenntinels).



> And here we go. This the sequel to 'All We Care About Is Talking' and while you don't have to read that first, it does actually explain the Jo/Katniss relationship a bit more, because we're just running into it full tilt, all in with our (metaphorical in my case, I don't know about you) balls out.
> 
> And this is for Thea, Sara and Liana who basically told me what they wanted and I am giving Thea her orgy. Because she needs it.

October seventeenth was the day everything changed; I’m not being over dramatic, I’m telling the truth. It’s the day my mother who usually spent the day watching _General Hospital_ was waiting for me when I came home from my shift at McDonalds.

She was so much more alert than I had ever seen her since my dad died.

 Mom told me quite calmly we were going to go live with my grandparents. I was confused; Grandpa and Gran Everdeen died a long time ago. Grandpa died before I was born, Gran when I was ten.

Mom explained we were going to live with her grandparents, and I have never met them before in my life. Mom was disowned.

It was a whirlwind, and we up and gone before it was October 18th, living in the guest rooms of a penthouse in New York City.

I got whiplash and I never even got to tell Gale goodbye.

Gale grew up in the floor above us in the low income building that we moved to after the accident in the mines killed both our fathers. He wasn’t a best friend, just the guy who brought home KFC because he could get a job. 

It happened in high school, a kiss in the bleachers after we lost the football game, and then more kisses at the tailgate.

It’s natural, easy, falling backwards into bed.

It’s comfortable like my favourite pair of shitty acid washed jeans.

Which Grandmother had tossed the minute she saw them.

‘It’s not fitting for a Cunningham,’ she told me over her tea and whiskey.

‘Good thing I’m an Everdeen,’ I said, and Mom kicked my ankles.

It’s been exactly one year, and I barely see Gale, and Johanna Mason kissed me at a party I had to go to, and I kissed back.

I’ve never kissed a girl before.

Well, to be fair I’ve only kissed Gale but for a second person I’ve ever kissed-it was really good.

And it shouldn’t be.

Because I have a boyfriend.

Who I probably am going to marry.

Because that’s how the story goes, boy meets girl in a shitty rat infested apartment, boy brings girl fast food to keep them from starving because mother was unable to get out of bed, and somewhere in high school they kiss, fuck and boy gets into university and girl gets kidnapped and brought to New York City where she is stuck getting brunch.

* * *

 

Maialino is the hottest spot for brunch Grandmother told me, and it’s an honour that  I am going with two of the biggest Upper East Siders: Annie Cresta, actual Spanish Nobility and according to the page whatever, engaged to Finn Odair, this guy who owns a brewery which makes some of the best beers. Gale drinks it, and Johana Mason with her short black hair and raccoon eyes that don’t look like that girl who stands on the corner outside the Seven Eleven with a cigarette in her lips.

‘I think a litre of Sangria will be good?’ Annie asks, French manicure thumbing the menu as she glances at Johanna for approval. Johanna tilts her head in a sort of whatever fashion, and Annie turns the waitress her dark hair pulled up in a ballerina bun and her green eyes pop. She’s pale but she doesn’t have those bags under her eyes that I seem to permanently have. ‘Then we would like a liter of Sangria-white, please to share, and I’ll have the Frittata Bianca.’

‘I’ll have the Ricotta Pancakes, and a coffee,’ Jo says lazily, barely glancing at the menu.

The waiter turns to me, expecting an answer, and I stare at the menu which has French or Italian names and prices that are ridiculous. I mean when people say I brunch, I think the diner down the road with runny eggs and good coffee and it costs me six dollars.

This will cost me for one croissant three dollars not including tip.

The wait is hard, and they’re all looking at me like I’m stupid and I stumble over the words ‘Cacio e Pepe’  the words sound drunk, and rough by my tongue and the waiter has this look in her eye, one that tells me she sees right through me.

Because Annie and Jo? 

They exhale this sort of grace, this sort of way of having people stare at them and it rolls off their back. They’re use to it, they group up in money and thinking Red Lobster is fast food, not something you save for three whole months just to celebrate turning sixteen.

And I don’t.

But the waiter doesn’t say anything; instead she smiles warmly and leaves.

‘I can’t drink,’ I say quietly. ‘I’m only eighteen.’

Jo rolls her eyes and Annie nods in understanding.

‘They didn’t card you brainless,’ Jo says and I bristle. She’s started that, right after I asked if Finn Odair and Annie Cresta would should up on _It’s Denise._ I mean why wouldn’t they? It’s his mom’s reality show. ‘So obviously they don’t give a fuck.’

‘Jo and I went here a lot when I came up from Santa Fe to visit her in high school,’ Annie tells me conversationally, as the waiter brings a crystal pitcher of sangria and three sort of wine glasses that are filled with equal amounts.

‘You were up what, every other weekend Crazy?’ Jo  says sipping her Sangria like it’s water. ‘When Finn got kicked out, you were severely lacking in social skills.’

Annie laughs and I want to know the story but I can’t ask.

According to Grandmother, Annie and Jo are the girls in society-proper society they type I can keep company with, because there is good society and the other people (other being anyone who isn’t an Upper East Sider) don’t exist-who are around my age, though Annie and Jo are both in their twenties, and Annie is engaged.

It’s an easy banter between them, Jo ribbing Annie and Annie countering with a sparkle in her eye that makes Jo’s smirk seem less cruel and more loving.

‘Oh,’ Annie tells me when our food gets put on our plates, ‘I completely forgot to ask you, are you going to Rye’s party?’

‘Rye?’

‘Rye Mellark.’

I stare.

The Mellarks own a bakery chain, one of the oldest and the best, and it’s all over America and in Europe as well; maybe it’s international I don’t know.  They’re known for their breads, and I have drooled over their cheese buns without ever tasting one because I cannot afford fourteen dollars for a half dozen, when that essentially pays the cellphone bill we had because we couldn’t afford a landline.

Also a cell phone can be charged at work, so we can save on hydro.

I’ve seen Grandmother buy a dozen and when they’re a day old and there’s three or four left, throw them out.

I don’t understand that at all.

But I never knew you could be so obsessed with bread that you’d call your kid “Rye”.

‘Is that his name?’  I ask over my whatever egg dish I got.

Jo throws her head back and laughs, her neck elongated and that silver pendant that looks like a Celtic knot on her throat because more prominent, ‘Fuck Mrs. M would love that to be true.  It would prove that she is a Mellark instead of a knock up.’

‘What?’

Annie doesn’t answer that, instead she smiles holding her glass to her lips. ‘Ryan Mellark. But Rye is one of those nicknamers so he went and christened himself Rye when he was…’

‘It was at Bran’s First Communion according to my mom,’ Jo says, ‘so Rye must have been four. Finn was like two? Maybe three? Anyway its Bran’s day and Rye is the center of the attention and so he stood on a table and yelled his name is Rye and Bran is Bran and anyone who calls them differently he’ll bite.’

I lean forward, careful not to get my elbow in this leather jacket I got from the thrift store that I’ve hidden from Grandmother successfully so far in my plate, ‘And did he?’

‘Well he’s not called Ryan and Bran’s not Brandon is he? Think Brainless.’

‘Finnick must have been two,’ Annie says thoughtfully, ‘because we weren’t born yet.’

Jo shrugs, and then looks at me; her brown eyes rimmed with eyeliner so many times it looks like she’s hiding a black eye pierces me, ‘So are you going?’

‘To what?’

‘Peeta’s turning eighteen, and he’s back from Harvard for the weekend,’ Jo has this habit of saying something kike it answers all the questions, but in fact it really doesn’t.

I think Peeta was the blonde guy I met at a dinner party, but I’m not sure.

‘The Mellark birthday party is Saturday isn’t it?’ Grandmother had spent hours trying to get me to get a good dress, one I hadn’t already worn which is stupid. A dress isn’t done after you wear it once.

‘Well, yes,’ Annie says. ‘But that’s a dinner, and a basic sort of thing. It’s not a proper eighteen.’

‘So…there’s a second birthday party?’

My eighteenth birthday was pizza with my mom and Prim, and watching the new Captain America movie.

But the rich boy needs two.

‘Mhm, Rye’s holding it so it’s going to be-‘

‘A fucking shit show,’ Jo finishes, and Annie frowns. ‘He was one the trip to Vegas which ended with Gloss getting arrested and Finn ass first in the fountain while Rye was with the strippers.’

And that is another story I want to hear, but I actually can’t ask because Annie’s making a face of not happy things.

‘Still,’ the smaller girl says pointedly. ‘It’s a good party, and Rye’s a really nice guy, so maybe you should come?’

‘Yeah Brainless,’ Jo smiles at me and I wonder if anyone has ever told her she looks like a shark with eyeliner, leather jackets and bright red lipstick. ‘Bring your boyfriend.’

If its fear that’s spreading through the pit of my stomach, face down Johanna Mason who looks like she can eat you alive and enjoy every bite, and tell me it’s not warranted.

 

**Author's Note:**

> My tumblr is seevikifangirl
> 
> Thank you for reading and the support.


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